Information contained in formerly secret files have revealed that Portugal's IGCP - the treasury agency for managing public debt - the national railways company Comboios de Portugal and the Social Security department between them have chanelled more than €130 million of public money through Jersey and Jordan.
The IGCP held €130 million in CP bonds issued from a financial vehicle based in the tax haven of Jersey.
The Social Security department had €170,000 in shares of a listed drugs company in London, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, but the unusual investment was made via Jordan, a tax haven.
The CP investment was sold in 2016 but there has been no comment from the railway company as to why it was necessary to use a tax haven to invest in pharmaceuticals when its magement was meant to be running a Portuguese railway service.
The Prime Minister António Costa has been keen to push through measures that prevent public bodies from making investments and issuing debt using offshore tax havens.
In a statement today, the government confirmed the above public institutions indeed held or had held the amounts reported.
The Ministry of Finance confirmed that it "is studying the mechanisms necessary to ensure that there are no public entities with investments in tax havens without prior knowledge and authorisation of the Government member responsible for finance" - this is not quite the same as the ban that Costa wanted but it is a step forward in accountability.
The Panama Papers is the name given to a leak of documents from Mossack Fonseca lawyers, based in Panama, which helped its clients create shell companies in tax havens.
The press is wading through the information as is the taxman and public prosector, keen to identify those whose tax affairs are less than clear cut.
